Spoiled, rotten, monstrous, brat...

I can't stand the word, "brat."  Really.

It makes my skin crawl.  When my oldest child was born, there was someone in my life who thought that it was a "cute, pet name" to call our sweet daughter:  

"Brat."   

OR... my OTHER "favorite" from the same person:"Little Monster." 

This makes me crazy to say the least.  And, especially if you know my daughter, she is far from a brat.  Really.  Trust me.  

I have been in kind of a funk lately.  It's the kind of funk that is disgusting and frustrating to me.  It's not what I've been saying on the outside either.  It's the stuff running through my head and unfortunately my heart as well.  

It is an ungrateful funk. <gulp>

It is like I have ripped apart a field of daisies, and instead of whimsically rotating the words, "He loves me, He loves me not," I have been rotating words like these plucking off the precious petals set before me: 

"Have. Have not. Have not. Have. Have not..."  

NOT a pretty picture, I know. 

It is shameful really, because I actually HAVE. SO. MUCH.  I really do!!  Instead of focusing on the "haves," I have just chosen in my head and in my heart to focus on the "have nots."  And, then, it occurs to me that I am a 

Spoiled,

rotten,

monstrous

brat. 

I am. Because I have so much, and I have been ungrateful. 

Then, I remember one of my life verses that I have always held dear to my heart in my walk with the Lord.

"I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." Philippians 4:11 (The Message version)

This makes me...

Convicted. 

Repentant. 

Grateful for what I have, and there is MUCH for me to be grateful for...

Grateful that God can forgive my 

Spoiled,

rotten,

monstrous,

bratty

heart.

I am looking at the field of flowers set before me with the hopes that I will just take in the sights.  I pray that I will be grateful again rather than tearing it apart because of any spaces that I may think I lack.  

Because I lack for nothing. I am blessed beyond measure. 

~Michelle